In the quiet hours before dawn's embrace

I stood before the mirror, tracing every trace.

A canvas worn and weary, splattered with dreams

In the depths of my heart, a cacophony screams.

With each reflection, a promise to make

“I’ll mold myself anew, for my own sake.”

I gathered my shadows, each fear and each flaw

Chiseled them down to a fractured raw.

Days turned to weeks, a relentless pursuit

I whispered to whispers, “You must bear the fruit.”

I painted my mind with colors so bright

Only to find darkness swallowing light.

Each night was a trial, a tormenting rite

I wrestled with thoughts in a desperate fight.

I turned over stones in the cavern of self

Unraveled the tapestries, shelves upon shelves.

I screamed at the silence, begged it to break

“Rebuild me from rubble, for my own sake.”

I danced with my demons, begged them to change

Tried twisting their forms, but they felt so strange.

The pressure was mounting, the air turned to stone

I forged every piece, but I felt so alone.

With each step I took, a crack deeper grew

The person I sought remained buried in blue.

I painted new stories, I crafted new ways

But the echoes of old me, they lingered for days.

I climbed every mountain, I swam every sea

Yet still, at my core, I was just… still me.

And then came the moment, that shattering night

When the weight of the effort eclipsed all the light.

I fell to my knees, the façade fell apart

The walls I had built crumbled down to my heart.

The truth I had sought was a mirror of pain

For in chasing the change, I had lost all I gained.

For in trying so hard to be someone I’m not

So here in the rubble, I breathe and I stand

A tapestry woven by my own hand.

Not perfect, not polished, but just simply alive.

In shadows where the cold winds sweep,

They whisper truths I dare not keep,

A chorus of deceitful lies,

From lips that feign, yet never sigh.

In dreams of love,

I sought my place,

Yet found only an empty space, A hollow echo in the night,

Where hearts that promise fail to light.

No hands were ever truly warm,

No tender touch, no love's true form,

Just empty words and vacant eyes,

A masquerade of sweet disguise.

Through endless corridors of doubt, I’ve wandered lost, I’ve wandered out,

Seeking a beacon in the gloom,

A sign to pierce the darkened tomb.

Yet every touch that claimed to care,

Was fraught with silence, cold and bare,

No heartbeat joined with mine in time,

Just echoes of a phantom rhyme.

Each whispered vow, a fleeting breath,

Dissolving in the chill of death,

No tender warmth or soft embrace,

Just shadows veiling empty space.

I’m left to wander, dark and cold,

A soul too fractured, too untold, Unlovable, they say in jest,

No solace found, no place to rest.

In every heart I tried to mend,

I found a void that won’t transcend,

For love’s true form I’ll never see,

A ghost of hope that's not for me.

Alone I stand beneath the sky,

Where stars refuse to meet my eye,

Their light a taunt, a distant gleam,

A shattered mirror of a dream.

In this abyss where silence reigns,

I trace the lines of all my chains,

And though I search for light and grace

I find but shadows in this place.

In the beginning, love was a gentle flame

Bright eyes and soft words, a sweet, tender name.

I cherished each moment, each smile, every sigh

With hope in my heart and stars in my eye.

We danced through the twilight, our souls intertwined

But shadows grew longer, and light became blind.

Your words, once so kind, now cut through like knives

Leaving scars on my spirit, erasing our lives.

I cared with a fervor, a passion so deep

But bitterness grew as I struggled to sleep.

For love turned to ashes, and kindness to scorn

The warmth of your touch left me hollow and worn.

Now anger has blossomed where love used to bloom

A garden of hatred in a cold, empty room.

The pain that you caused me, I can no longer bear

For caring so much led to despair.

In this tangled web of affection and hate,

I’m left with the fragments of a once-hopeful fate.

The love that I nurtured has faded to gray

And I’m left with the ruins of a heart led astray.

In the glow of the midnight screen

Lost in worlds that might have been

Echoes of a distant dream

Where the lights are never dim.

We’re chasing stories, chasing time

In the blur of pixel lines

Feel the hum of fake design

Truth and fiction intertwine.

They sell us fantasies so bright

Painted with the perfect light

While the world outside takes flight

In the silence of the night.

We’re wrapped in tales of endless lore

While the real begins to snore

Yearning for a heart’s encore

In the shadows of the store.

So we dive in, we’re mesmerized

By the shimmer, by the lies

Yet the soul is left unwise

Lost beneath those starlit skies.

I’m caught in a storm of fleeting desires.

Lusted after, never truly known.

They see the surface, the illusion of me

But never the depth of what I yearn for.

Their eyes hunger, but their hearts stay distant

And I’m left grappling with their touch.

Unsettled by affection that feels like a chase,

Always craving what seems just out of reach.

When I meet someone who sees beyond the veil,

Who offers a gentler hand, a truer glance

I cherish their presence, a beacon in the dark

A fleeting warmth that feels almost real.

Yet, when faced with the promise of something more

I falter, afraid that such goodness is but a dream

That this chance is too perfect, too fragile

And so I pull away, sabotaging what’s in my grasp.

The ones who are genuine slip through my fingers,

While the ones who cause discomfort linger too long.

I’m left in shadows, wondering if I’m meant for this,

If love is a cruel jest or an elusive gift.

Their absence leaves a void, a cold space

Where doubts and fears whisper of my worth.

In the end, I am alone, battling the echoes,

Of what could have been, but never was.

I wonder if I’ll ever find that one

The soul who’s destined just for me alone.

What is this “one” that people speak of?

The one who’ll love me through each day

Unwavering, even when skies are gray.

The one who’d give their all, without a second thought

The one who’d fight for me, protect me from all storms

Would they truly exist beyond my dreams?

Or is it but a fantasy, a fleeting hope?

They say love is a wound that never heals

A relentless cycle of both joy and pain

A flame that flickers bright but leaves you cold

A riddle wrapped in shadows, hard to hold.

I hear love is elusive, hard to capture,

A treasure that slips through fingers, like sand.

Yet I still seek it with a fervent heart

Longing for a touch that means the world

Hoping for a gaze that speaks of endless devotion.

Friends and strangers tell me stories of heartache

Of love that fades, of promises broken.

They say it’s a struggle, a battle within

A maze of emotions where hope and fear collide.

Still, I persist in my quest for this rare gem

Searching for a connection that defies the odds

Yearning for a kiss that lingers,

A presence that makes me feel whole.

Though it may be a mirage in the desert of my dreams,

A figment of imagination’s whims,

I chase the vision of a love that endures

Believing despite the pain, despite the doubts.

For in this relentless pursuit

In every hopeful breath and tender wish,

I find a reason to keep moving forward

Even if the one I seek is lost to the stars.

In shadows cast by dimming light

I sacrifice the day and night.

I give myself to those I love

Yet find no solace from above.

I lay before my brothers’ need,

The last of food, my heart's own bleed.

They waste the gifts that I bestow

While hunger carves a hollowed woe.

My body reveals the toll I pay,

As stress and sorrow steal away

The strength that once was mine to keep

Now buried deep in sleepless sleep.

I weep and watch my spirit fray,

As praise eludes me, night and day.

Their voices harsh where thanks should be

Yet still I toil unceasingly.

In silent pain, I tend and care

A love unthanked, a burden rare.

For family’s sake, my heart I give

And wonder what it means to live.

In shadows deep where judgments lie

A soul is cast beneath the sky. Mistakes, they mark me, harsh and cold

Yet what they miss is more untold.

Beneath the surface, hidden well

A heart that’s tried and strives to mend

Each error made, a story’s shell

Of lessons learned, of hearts to tend.

I bear a weight, too vast for years

With responsibilities hard to bear

Yet in my quest to soothe my fears They see me not, though I am there.

A mother’s role, a child so young

With burdens heavy, tears that flow

In silent nights when sorrows sung

The world misjudges what they know.

They see the cracks, the flaws I own But fail to glimpse the care I give

In every sigh, in every tone

A heart that beats, a will to live.

So when mistakes cast shadows wide

And kindness seems to fade away

Remember, there’s a soul inside

With tender hopes that yearn for day.

In shadows deep, where hopes unfold

I stand alone, a tale untold.

For all I give, in vain, it seems

The love I yearn for drifts in dreams.

My father’s gaze, a distant shore

My mother’s touch, a mythic lore.

Love’s fleeting spark, a fleeting grace

Yet none will hold me in their embrace.

The hearts I seek, they pass me by

Their fleeting glances, fleeting sighs.

The ones who stay, they never see

The love I hold, the part of me.

Like cookies crushed in reckless hands

My feelings scatter, grains of sand.

In every shake, in every tear

I lose the self I hold so dear.

Yet in this pain, a truth reveals

That worth’s not measured by what’s dealt.

For I am more than what’s expressed

A human heart, in aching quest.

In shadows of my heart, a tender truth resides

A love both cherished and a wound that hides.

My father, once a beacon, with kindness rare

Taught me warmth in ways few others share.

He saw me not through fault or fleeting gaze

But in the gentle light of his endless praise.

Yet, as the years drift on and time unfolds

The silence speaks of a story untold.

The longing for a father’s steadfast grace

For a love that doesn’t wane or leave a trace.

I yearn for days when we could simply be

Bound by a bond of pure integrity.

His absence cuts where no one else can see

An ache for what should have been, and could still be.

I seek a figure, steadfast, without guise

To fill the emptiness with no disguise.

Yet still, I hold the kindness he bestowed

A flicker of the love that once brightly glowed.

In the quiet ache of longing, I find peace

And hope that in this heartache, there’s release.